Women's Cross Country 9/23/2017 12:00:00 AM

Taylor Leads St. Mary's Women's Cross Country in New Jersey

For Immediate Release · By Justin Gordon · jpgordon@smcm.edu

Galloway, N.J. – First-year Kara Taylor (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial) used a ninth-place finish to power the St. Mary's College of Maryland women's cross country team to a fifth-place finish in a 14-team field at the Osprey Open.

The Basics:

Place – 5th of 14 (141 points)
Location – Stockton University – Galloway, N.J.

St. Mary's Top 5 Finishers:

The fifth-place finish was St. Mary's best finish in three appearances at the Osprey Open.
Taylor recorded her best finish thus far in her young career as she finished ninth of 152 runners with a time of 24:51.80.
In her first-ever meet since joining the team earlier this week, fellow first-year Lindsey Stevenson (Bel Air, Md./C. Milton Wright) emerged as the second Seahawk to cross the finish line with a time of 25:19.89, which was good enough for 18th overall.
Junior captain Marisa McCormick (Prince Frederick, Md./Calvert) ran a time of 26:08.86, which made her the third runner for St. Mary's to finish. McCormick finished 32nd overall.
Sophomore Sarah Jeffrey (Catonsville, Md./Catonsville) and senior captain Halcyon Ruskin (Kensington Md./Albert Einstein) were the next Seahawks to finish, putting them as St. Mary's fourth and fifth runners, respectively. Jeffrey ran a 27:26.66 for 56th place while Ruskin came in at 28:03.61 for 61st overall.

Other Top Finishers

Ramapo College of New Jersey claimed the team trophy as four of its runners place in the Top 10.
Alicia Belko of second-place Stockton captured the individual title with a time of 22:54.84.

Up Next for the Seahawks

The Seahawks travel to Capital Athletic Conference rival, Salisbury University, next Saturday, September 30 for the Don Cathcart Invitational. Racing begins at 9:45 a.m. at Winterplace Park.

Seahawk Finishers (152 runners): 9. Kara Taylor, 18. Lindsey Stevenson, 32. Marisa McCormick, 56. Sarah Jeffrey, 61. Halcyon Ruskin, 75. Lindsey Power (28:56.24), 84. Melody Raynaud (29:23.27), 95. Marie Lewis (30:14.54), 97. Emily Lane (30:43.43), 102. Caitlyn Sarudy (31:13.83), 105. Natalie Hussey (31:26.43), 110. Alyssa Leventer (31:46.78), 115. Kaitlyn Simmons (32:21.07), 117. Kori Taber (33:00.15), 124. Tara Vizzi (34:30.52)